I was reading Ollie Edwards article in this months FF&FT where he is using the J.Son Legs and bits and pieces.
So Inspired, i went on their excellant website and ordered a selection of bits i thought i could have some fun with.
Shameless Plug
http://www.jsonsweden.com/en/jsons-fly-fishing-fly-tying-products/ Well deserved.
Now i have a copy of the FlyTyers masterclass and have worked my way through it over a couple of winters, just for fun, many of the flies i've simplified for actual fishing with
They take a long time to tie and you wouldn't want to loose them.
So with plans to go fishing today put on the back burner due to a belly ache and then with the arrival of a box from Sweden this morning, I decided to partake of my first love, which is to tie some flies. Now with some inspiration from Mr Edwards and a copy of the FSC ephemeroptera guide i decide to see what i could make that was realistic but still fairly simple to tie. It took a good few attempts before i was completely happy with the ease of tying and getting the new Legs to work out the way i invisaged, but i got there in the end IMHO and i have a nice wee selection of march brown nymphs from the experiments, which are all good enough to catch fish
Impressionists look away now, unless you have a desire to tweek the impression into something a touch more realistic
This is a couple of the MB nymphs viewed from the top. Tied on a size 12 TMC 200R
The same two nymphs viewed from below
This is one of them in profile, so they should swim quite well too
Basically there is a tail of Coq de leon, an abdomen of nymph skin are other fine latex, a rib of ostrich herl clipped top and bottom, a pair of micro dumbell eyes and a thorax of Squirrel. The N3 size legs are attached on the underside using spiderweb after the fly is tied and the wingcase is Bug Bond in a couple of coats to build into the shape, A little colour is added courtesy of Pantone. Takes about 5 mins to tie once you've done a few and they do look good, will aim to give the try out next week sometime.
I also tried some of the smaller N5 legs in a darker colour as i thought they might make a nice looking Olive nymph, if not anatomically correct
This came out quite nice too and was dead easy to tie. Again Coq de leon for the tail, Olive latex for the abdomen, Baetis brown olive for the thorax, Tungsten head, Legs attached afterwards with spiderweb and wing case done with bug bond. Quick and effective.
They might not be quite as impressive as Olly's ones in the magazine but i'm happy as they are quite quick to tie and look really effective, the legs are very soft so i don't know how trout they will last, but i'm looking forward to finding out.
Cheers
Sandy
ps i got some of the caddis legs too, so we shall see how they turn out.